More Articles

The Dispatch E-Edition

All current subscribers have full access to Digital D, which includes the E-Edition and
unlimited premium content on Dispatch.com, BuckeyeXtra.com, BlueJacketsXtra.com and
DispatchPolitics.com.
Subscribe
today!

A power outage at the Shops at Worthington Place couldn’t pull the plug on a grand-opening
celebration that upscale sporting-goods retailer Orvis has planned for this weekend.

About 30 customers were in the Orvis store yesterday morning “when, all of a sudden, the lights
flickered and went completely out,” said fishing-department manager Neil Neidhardt. “I looked
outside and saw lights were out at several other stores. Then the building manager said someone hit
a transformer.”

Construction workers at the Worthington mall struck a power line, cutting off electricity to the
mall and surrounding businesses, said local developer Tom Carter, co-owner of the Worthington mall
along with Morris-Floyd Capital Partners of Texas.

Although some businesses closed, “we’re an outdoors store, so we’re accustomed to roughing it,”
said Neidhardt of the Orvis store. “We had our flashlights and pocket calculators. We got some of
the Coleman lanterns that are (battery-)powered and put them around the store, and a few in the
fitting rooms. We’ve even sold some flies and taken a few returns.”

Vermont-based Orvis, which operates more than 80 stores in the United States and the United
Kingdom, had opened the doors of its first central Ohio store quietly two weeks ago and is planning
to celebrate in a bigger way today and Sunday with live music, food and giveaways.

The blackout is “one of the challenges of doing business in an urban area,” Carter said. “It’s
not the first utility that’s been hit out here.” About six months ago, workers doing construction
on Insight Bank hit a natural-gas line. “The whole area was evacuated for a few hours.”

Yesterday’s power outage was relatively brief, and power was to be restored to about half the
mall by last night, Carter said. “Everything will be fixed by (this) morning,” he said.

Some stores were back with full power by midafternoon yesterday.

Gourmet-pizza and craft-beer restaurant Pies & Pints, which opened at the mall on Monday,
was without power twice yesterday: starting at 11 a.m. for about 45 minutes, then for another 20
minutes a few hours later, kitchen manager Jon Parker said.

“We’ve got power now, and there was no spoilage,” Parker said. “All systems are a complete go,
and we are coping just fine.”

The openings of Orvis and Pies & Pints are part of the renaissance of the revamped
Worthington mall, now called the Shops at Worthington Place. Kenneth’s Hair Salon & Day Spa and
Worthington Dental Group also recently opened.

Naticakes, a cupcake and yogurt shop, is on track to open in December, Carter said, and Piada
Italian Street Food will open soon after.